Page 28 - aruba-today-20171209

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 9 december 2017

Blood test may help predict which breast cancers will recur

In this Tuesday, April 28, 2015 file photo, a patient has her blood drawn for a liquid biopsy at a hospital in Philadelphia.
Associated Press
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE you would not have a re- away, said Dr. Massimo fairly small. So finding a way become evident with more
AP Chief Medical Writer currence in the next two Cristofanilli, a breast can- to tell who really needs that time, he said.
A blood test five years after years” and perhaps could cer specialist at Northwest- would be a big help. The blood test seemed to
breast cancer treatment skip further treatment, he ern University in Chicago Women in the study had a do a good job of identifying
helped identify some wom- said. who has used these tests CellSearch test five years which of these hormone-
en who were more likely to Sparano led the study and and consults for another on average after their can- positive patients were at
relapse, long before a lump gave results Friday at the company developing one. cer was found and treated. low risk of recurrence, sug-
or other signs appeared, a San Antonio Breast Cancer “Clearly, to me, we have Among those with estro- gesting that women who
preliminary study found. Symposium. to do something” now that gen-fueled disease, 5 per- test negative may be able
It was the largest experi- The test — CellSearch, sold this study suggests a wider cent had cancer cells in to forgo an additional five
ment so far to use these by Menarini-Silicon Biosys- role for them, he said. the blood test, and they years of hormone-blocking
tests, called liquid biopsies tems — looks for stray can- It involved 547 women in turned out to have a 22- medicines.
, for breast cancer. Results cer cells in the blood. long-term follow-up from fold higher risk of recur- The test did not predict re-
suggest they someday may Breast cancer survivors may an earlier cancer drug rence within roughly two currence risk in the rest of
help reveal which women be tempted to rush out and study. Two-thirds of them years compared to women the women in the study,
need longer preventive get it, but doctors say it’s had cancers fueled by es- whose blood test was neg- whose tumors were not
therapy and which ones too soon for that. Although trogen, and in most cases it ative. fueled by estrogen. They
can be spared it. it’s been used for about a had spread to lymph nodes About 65 percent of wom- have a lower risk of recur-
“It could be providing an decade to monitor certain but not more widely. en with hormone-positive rence after five years to
early warning sign” for patients with advanced All had surgery and che- disease and a positive start with.
some women that cancer cancer during treatment, motherapy followed by blood test did not have a The study was funded by
is returning, said Dr. Joseph its value for helping to pre- hormone-blocking medi- new breast cancer within the Breast Cancer Re-
Sparano of Montefiore Ein- dict breast cancer relapse cines for five years. Guide- two years, but that doesn’t search Foundation, Su-
stein Center for Cancer risk is not well established, lines now recommend con- mean the blood test gave san G. Komen Foundation
Care in New York. and insurers won’t pay the sidering hormone blockers a false alarm, Sparano said. and the National Cancer
On the other hand, “if you $600 to $900 tab. for up to 10 years, but they “We haven’t followed the Institute.q
had a negative test, there The new study should spur have side effects and their patients long enough” — it
was a 98 percent chance more research on this right benefit beyond five years is could be that more tumors